What is a B2C travel portal? How to build a robust B2C travel business?

The B2C travel portal facilitates simple, secure bookings from any browser or device. Successfully operating a B2C travel portal will benefit your business.

In today’s hyper-connected world, consumers are accustomed to receiving immediate responses. To meet the expectations of their customers, travel agencies must adapt and become more responsive. It would be a pity if, with the current state of travel technology, they did not utilize their competitive advantages. B2C travel portals increase travel providers’ profits by accessing a global customer base.

However, the expansion of technology in the travel industry is not limited to voyage planning. Digitization is making travel significantly more affordable, accessible, and convenient than ever before. The advent of new technologies is altering the entire landscape of the travel industry.

I. What is a B2C travel portal? 

A B2C (Business-to-Consumer) travel portal is an online marketplace that enables travel companies to sell their products and services to consumers directly.

The B2C travel portal is the most important element of a travel website. It is a travel portal for retail sales that allows the company to sell more products and generate more revenue.

II. Benefits of B2C travel portal for travel companies 

1. Increased Reach

A B2C travel portal enables travel companies to reach more customers, including those who prefer to book their travel arrangements online. This can assist travel agencies in expanding their customer base and boosting their revenue.

2. Reduced Costs

By automating various processes, such as booking administration, payment processing, and customer service, a B2C travel portal can help travel companies reduce their expenses. This can lead to increased productivity and decreased labor costs.

3. Improved Customer Experience

A B2C travel portal can provide customers with a seamless and personalized booking experience, allowing them to easily search for and book travel arrangements that meet their needs and preferences. This can result in increased consumer loyalty and satisfaction.

4. Competitive Advantage

A B2C travel portal can assist travel companies in remaining competitive by providing a broader selection of travel products and services, competitive pricing, and innovative features like personalized recommendations and loyalty programs.

5. Data and Analytics

A B2C travel portal can provide travel companies with valuable customer behavior, preference, and trend data and analytics. This can assist travel companies in making decisions based on data and optimizing their marketing and sales strategies.

III. Challenges of B2C travel portal development

1. Single platform multiple booking types

If you intend to sell multiple categories of products or services, you must select the booking type according to your business needs. It appears difficult to develop a B2C travel portal development that supports multiple booking categories on a single platform.

2. Slot management

What if you are arranging a vacation and wish to prohibit reservations on specific dates? If this is the case, you must have a system that allows you to close certain dates to prevent reservations on those dates. This is only possible if your B2C travel portal can restrict reservations on specific days.

3. Booking cancellation

If you offer booking cancellation, you will receive an overwhelming number of requests that are difficult to manage. It may also result in a high number of no-shows if you do not offer the option to cancel a reservation. It is advantageous to design a B2C travel portal so that customers can request the merchant to cancel their reservations rather than providing them with a direct cancel option.

4. Streamline booking process

Customers who visit your website to schedule appointments online shouldn’t be confused. This is ultimately a real-time interaction between you and your website visitors who order products or services. It is essential to design your B2C travel portal so that users can easily reserve products or services on your website.

5. Handle customer complaints

If you operate an eCommerce website, you must address consumer complaints. The consumer may have had a negative experience. Therefore, it is essential to provide an option on your B2C travel portal for customers to raise their concerns.

IV. How does B2C travel portal development work?

A B2C travel portal is a website that allows consumers or travel agents to sell hotels, flights, airport transfers, packages, and other travel-related products. As the travel industry accelerates, travelers anticipate an intuitive and technologically advanced travel platform. To ensure the total development of a travel portal, it is essential to consider all customer aspects.

Travelers prefer a portal that provides a one-stop shop for all their travel needs, and customer satisfaction is the key to business success; it enables you to expand.

It displays all travel-related queries on a single page, enabling customers to conduct searches without difficulty. The B2C travel portal is an efficient and cost-effective software application.

Furthermore, we also provide B2B Travel Portal solutions for travel agents and travel operators across around the world. Read more the article here to explore How B2B travel portal solutions help customize booking solutions for travel agent companies.

V. Things to Consider: Design a website for a B2C travel portal 

1. Responsive Website

A responsive website functions on all devices, not just desktop computers, laptops, and mobile phones. The website should be mobile and tablet-friendly so that users who are attempting to sign up via their mobiles and tablet-friendly so that users who are attempting to sign up via their mobiles and tablets have the greatest experience possible and you do not lose customers.

2. Integration of search form

The search form must be integrated appropriately into your website. On your form, you must include all fields relevant to the customer’s inquiry. For instance, if a consumer is searching for hotels, the field day and date of travel, number of days of stay, and number of adults and children must be present. Once the user has entered all the required information, the data will be sorted according to their preferences and the filtered information will be displayed.

For optimal results, it is necessary to include a search form that extracts the maximum amount of information from the user.

3. Content management

Since your website serves as the interface between you and your customer, you must personalize the website’s content. Thus, the content should effectively direct the consumer to whatever they are seeking. If the website’s content is deceptive, the customer will exit and go to another site. The content must be concise and provide the quality information the user requires.

4. API Integration

People should be able to type in their questions on your website and get answers that meet their needs. Your website should also show competitive results so that people only book through your website and not anywhere else. Therefore, you need an API that filters data according to the query and displays it on your website.

5. SEM Benefits

When a travel technology partner develops your website, they will incorporate Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which is crucial to your website’s ranking. Initially, it is advisable to use both paid and organic advertising to attract more visitors to your website.

6. Offers and Deals

If you want to gain a competitive edge in the market, you must offer discounts and promotions to your customers, particularly your most loyal ones. If you have negotiated a lower net price with your supplier and wish to increase website traffic, you can post it as the finest deals and offers on your website. This will increase traffic flow, and as a result, users will remember your travel website’s name.

7. Integration of Customer Support

Online Travel Agency is unrestricted by location. You must organize your customer service so that individuals who are not reserving from your country or from a different time zone can still receive the support they require. Therefore, a B2C travel portal must be accessible to all of its users.

8. Call-to-Action-Buttons

The placement of call-to-action buttons depends on the psychological and behavioral characteristics of your consumers. The layout and typography of your website, as well as the placement of these icons, will also affect the number of sales leads generated by your website. Design a B2C travel portal that is appealing to its users in all of the aforementioned ways.

9. Customized Services

It is necessary to provide services based on the location of the consumers. Therefore, offering customized services within your niche will help you attract more customers to your website. For instance, if you offer hotel and flight booking services, you should also offer car rental in your niche market.

10. Translator

As stated previously, online travel portals are not geographically limited. Any user from any country should be able to access and use your website. However, we must keep in mind that there are linguistic and monetary differences, and as a result, your website must accommodate these needs by employing a translator of language and currency.

VI. How to build a robust B2C travel business

1. Understanding your customer 

Determine your intended audience. To provide the best possible service, you must comprehend your travel audience’s wants, needs, and objectives.  

Create a comprehensive profile of your audience’s preferences. For example:

Creating such a profile aids in gaining a thorough comprehension of your customers and determining the best course of action for your business.  

2. Services

Once you’ve created a customer profile, all you need to do is select the services and modules that are most essential to that customer.  

It is essential to construct a robust inventory with the assistance of the best suppliers. Thus, you can provide your customer with a diversity of options from which to choose.  

In addition to hotels, having a Transfer and Car Rental Module will allow you to serve business travelers more effectively.  

3. Choosing the right travel technology partner

Technology can either make or break your dream B2C travel platform. Find a technology partner who can aid in the expansion of your business.

Look for a travel technology supplier that provides the most partners, integration options, and features. A superior provider of travel technology will possess:

– A diverse portfolio of customers.

– Comprehensive set of features and services that facilitate the development of all services.

– Excellent market reputation and a lengthy history of technological innovation.

– Support and after-sales service

– Constantly innovating to provide you with cutting-edge technological solutions.

4. The X factor

The X factor is a distinctive aspect of your B2C travel portal. This could be very useful for attracting new and retaining existing consumers. It could be a loyalty program, price comparison, booking assistance, etc.

For instance, you can implement a live video call-based guided booking procedure in which consumers are guided by one of your agents in real-time. Or, you can implement spend analytics on your platform to enable customers to compare their planned and actual expenditures for a specific excursion. The X factor distinguishes you from your competitors.

5. Go Live and Promotions

Once your Online Travel Portal has been established, you must ensure that it is discovered and viewed by your target audience. Which necessitates the utilization of such practices as:

– Superior content and documentation on your platform.

– Utilize SEO and digital marketing tools to make the website more search-friendly.

– Through organic and paid social media marketing, promote your B2C travel portal.

– Create and distribute content that is both relevant and shareable for your audience.

6. Mobile app for B2C travel agency

A B2C travel business is insufficient without a mobile app. Construct a mobile app that enables you to:

– Offer customized services and promotions to your customers.

– Provide them with access to special offers and content.

– Provide localized alerts and information.

– Provide mobile access to their travel history and booking information.

– Having an effective travel mobile app that provides the same services as the web can significantly increase your business’s revenue and customer loyalty.

Besides, you also read the article here to discover solo travel app – High-tech suitcase for digital age, particularly for travelers.

VII. Adamo Helps Empower your B2C travel portal

Adamo Software is the premier software development company in Vietnam, utilizing cutting-edge technology to increase the revenue of travel companies. Our travel portal software development services for your travel portal can expand your business in new directions. To learn more, arrange a meeting with our specialists. As one of the travel portal development solution in Vietnam, Adamo has strong backgrounds in developing lucrative B2C travel portal solutions.

FAQs

1. Challenges that B2C travel companies have to face with

1.1 Cost of Technology

A B2C travel portal requires robust technology to operate effectively. There are numerous expenses associated with establishing a B2C travel portal.

– Supplier Licenses – Bank guarantees, CAP licenses.

– Payment Gateways – Initiation fees.

– Travel Technology Provider – Platform license fee, initial setup fee, and maintenance fees.

– Hosting – Hosting with a dedicated server, server licenses, security protocols, certifications, etc.

All of these factors make it prohibitively expensive for any travel company to launch an online travel agency. The high price of technology is a challenge for many businesses.

1.2. Engaging Customers

Obtaining customers is only the battle; the other half is retaining them and obtaining repeat business. Maintaining customer engagement is simple when you have:

– A website that renders quickly, and efficiently, and provides information, content, and appealing imagery across multiple devices.

– Value-added programs, such as loyalty modules, coupons, discounts, and special offers, that help consumers maximize their travel expenses.

– Data Security and safety is a big problem and people will stop using your online service if they believe you are reusing their information in any way.

All of this required advanced technology to function. Without something to hold customers to your portal, they will lose interest.

1.3. Providing the best deals

It takes only thirty seconds to compare hotel prices on competitive websites. In such a competitive environment, your pricing and discounting strategy must be superior to those of the competition. 

You can only provide the best deals to your consumers as a B2C travel agency if you have the best deals from your suppliers. It is essential to have the finest inventory and coupon modules to ensure that your customers have no reason to shop elsewhere.

1.4. Stand out from the competition

Tourism and travel is a highly competitive industry. Numerous travel portals are competing for your customers’ focus. It is essential to stand out from the mundane and maintain customer loyalty. Provide them with a reason to never choose your competitor over you.

2. Key components of B2C travel portal 

2.1. Services

End-users and B2C clients can book online travel offers including flights, hotels, transfers, cruises, and vacation packages. The travel inventory can be linked via GDS/APIs or direct contracts.

2.2. Pricing and availability

In addition to the service list, your travel companion has access to the pricing and price list for each service. The price list that your partner can view includes the price of the fundamental service in addition to the prices for additional services, supplements, reductions, and discounts. After a service has been made available through the addition of allotment, the partner will be able to directly book and pay for the service. The partner can select “Send Inquiry” if there is no additional allocation. If you, as an administrator, disable booking for specific dates, partners will be unable to make reservations for that period.

2.3. Promotion special offers

The promotion was also viewable on the B2B login page. You also have the option to input special offers into the system, allowing your travel partners to take advantage of them. This contributes to increasing demand and sales.

2.4. Different pricing levels for the market or partners

Using the option different market, you can define varying pricing levels for different partners in the back office, if desired. If you are targeting three distinct markets, such as the European market, the Asian market, and the American market, you have the option of adjusting your prices by adding various commissions to each market. Each participant will receive the price corresponding to the market to which they are assigned. This will allow travel agents to receive a determined price. This is an excellent marketing instrument for assisting, boosting, and rewarding partner sales.

2.5. Entering reservation and reservation management

The interface for reserving travel is designed to enable the travel partner to make a reservation directly if they have access to information such as product, price, and information about special prices, promotions, services, and availability. A summary of all reservations completed by the system is also accessible. This indicates that the system will enable the administration and travel partner to effectively track and manage reservations.

2.6. Making all the documents available

The system will provide all documents to travel partners, allowing them to make them available to consumers. There is a highly effective system for the tour operator and tourist agencies and their partners’ mutual communication.

When a partner makes a reservation, the provided document is contingent on their actions. When a request is sent, an automatic offer and itinerary will follow. There is an automated process for sending the invoice following the completion of a reservation. This procedure could be modified according to the needs of the travel agencies. 

In addition, partners will receive an overview of all the documents created and linked to the reservation system, which can be transmitted to customers for printing. This is an essential characteristic of travel distribution platforms.

2.7. Providing better control over the whole process

This indicates that everything is under one roof. Partners obtain a summary of the reservations and documents they have created. The entire procedure is centralized, eradicating the possibility of error. The travel distribution infrastructure has become the backbone of B2C travel portal-using travel agencies.